My work often explores the trauma caused by displacement and dismemberment of family and home. As a child born in Kirov, Russia- orphaned at birth, I am drawn to telling the stories of youths whose childhoods are divergent or unstable due to geopolitical circumstances out of their control. Too Young To Fight focuses on the experience of children exposed to trauma due to conflict. In Ukraine, the impact of the war on the lives of children is heartbreaking.

When I first arrived in Ukraine, it was a week after the invasion started on February 24, 2022. I am now in Ukraine for a second trip after a break from four months documenting every region, east to west. This funding will go toward the basic costs of telling these stories that I have been funding out of pocket because I believe so deeply in the need for this documentation.  

The landscape of this war is changing daily. As of September 2022, an estimated 1000+ children have been killed in Ukraine due to this war. Some have been tortured, their bodies burned. Thousands of others have sustained injuries from shelling and are getting fitted for prosthetics. An aftermath story of war is developing in real time as the war continues. The beautiful thing about children is the joy they find in the most unlikely of circumstances and as they age into their reality.

As these children grow older, the shadows of this history will follow them. Many of them will be drafted into the war as young adults. I want to photograph these stories, the ones that emulsify the innocence that war destroys through the eyes of children as they find a more permanent identity– the everyday life juxtaposed with the important milestones. The short-term and long-term effects of this war on Ukraine’s youth can be a greater conversation than one just about war.